How the estimate was madePrior to Pew Research Center’s 2007 survey, no estimate for the
Muslim American population, based on widely accepted social scientific
methods, was available. Gauging the number of Muslims living in the
United States is difficult because the U.S. Census Bureau, as a matter
of policy, does not ask Americans about their religion. Nor do U.S.
immigration authorities keep track of the religious affiliation of new
immigrants. Both the Census Bureau and immigration authorities do
collect statistics, however, on people’s country of birth. Researchers
can estimate the size of U.S. religious groups by combining this
country-of-birth information with data from surveys on the percentage of
people from each country, or group of countries, who belong to various
faiths.

For example, interviewing used to identify Muslim respondents for the
Pew Research Center’s 2011 Muslim American survey (which screened more
than 43,000 households, including non-Muslims) finds that87% of people
living in the U.S. who were born in Pakistan, Bangladesh or Yemen are
Muslim.Pew Research demographers applied this percentage to
country-of-birth figures from the U.S. Census Bureau. The census data
show there are 198,000 households in which the head or spouse is from
one of these three countries, which when multiplied by the percentage of
Muslims from these countries (87%) results in an estimate that there
are 173,000 immigrant Muslim households of Pakistani, Bangladeshi and
Yemeni extraction.The survey also asked about other Muslim adults and children in the
household. On the basis of this information, an average household size
was calculated for each country-of-birth group (or parent’s
country-of-birth group) and multiplied by the number of households. The
173,000 Muslim immigrant households from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Yemen,
for example, contain an estimated 380,000 Muslim adults and 195,000
Muslim children, for a combined total of 576,000 Muslims in these
households. A similar approach was taken for second-generation immigrant
households, which were calculated separately. For households with no
foreign-born respondents or natives with foreign-born parents (i.e.,
third-generation households), calculations were made using survey data
on age and racial breakdowns of third-generation (or later) Muslim
Americans, again applied to U.S. Census data on the third-and-higher
generations."...

============================
============================

Jan. 2011 Pew Research cites US immigration policy for increasing US Muslim population:

A
judge on Monday agreed to a request by the prosecutors that Mr.
Gonzalez, who is from Copperas Cove, Tex., and believed to have been
living out of his car, remain in custody until a hearing next month
because he posed a danger to President Obama.....

Julia
A. Pierson, the director of the Secret Service, said in an interview
that she had ordered a “full fact-finding investigation into what didn’t
work, where mistakes were made and how to ensure we prevent it in the
future.”....

But she
also strongly defended the 6,500-employee agency, saying repeatedly
that news media attention on the handful of mistakes that the agency
makes obscures the complex, difficult work that agents and officers do..

“Do
we hope to make money out of it that we are not making today?
Absolutely,” said Robert S. Franklin, president of the Exxon Mobil Gas
and Power Marketing Company. “There is very significant upside in this
project.”

The
two companies propose to reverse some pipelines, using the existing gas
storage tanks and docks and adding three enormous refrigerant plants to
the complex on land now occupied by cattle grazing under a blazing sun.
The plants will take American gas and cool it to minus 260 Fahrenheit,
condensing it to a liquid that can be loaded on tankers and shipped to
Asian, Latin American and European markets..

Golden
Pass is one of eight potential liquefied natural gas projects Exxon is
considering, including projects in Canada, Australia and Tanzania. As
the biggest gas producer in the United States, Exxon could profit
handsomely from the terminal, which could export two billion cubic feet
of gas a day, nearly 3 percent of current production in the United
States.

The
proposed conversion offers many bonuses for Qatar, which plans to put
up 70 percent of the money for the export project. It is a way to
salvage a failed project from an embarrassment and convert it to a jewel
among its gas investments, which already stretch from the Persian Gulf
to the Adriatic Sea to South Wales. The project could enable the Persian
Gulf emirate to capitalize on the United States energy revolution in
time

But
large Asian and European buyers are increasingly bargaining to buy gas
at prices that approach the low American gas price, frequently on the
spot market. That is far below Qatar’s preferred price, which is indexed
to higher global oil prices. As more American gas comes on the world
market, Qatar could become increasingly squeezed, energy specialists
say.

Qatar
still has abundant pricing power. Its own export plants, which it runs
in partnership with Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Total of France and
other international oil companies, produce a third of the 230 million
tons of annual global liquefied natural gas output.

But
the export terminals being built around the world will provide markets
with an additional 80 million tons of annual capacity — and none of it
is being built in Qatar.Australia will replace Qatar as the largest
global gas exporter by 2017,

according to a report this year by Eurasia
Group, the New York-based geopolitical consultancy, and combined United
States and Canadian capacity could also surpass Qatar’s by 2020.

“If
they want to retain market share, Qatar is definitely going to need
more gas,” said Leslie Palti-Guzman, senior analyst for global energy
and natural resources at Eurasia Group.

Qatar
may need more gas, but producing more at home is a politically charged
proposition. The country has a moratorium on gas production from its
main offshore field, which it shares with Iran. A main reason, regional
energy specialists say, is to avert angry charges and potential
retaliation from Tehran for draining the shared field.

The
Golden Pass terminal would give the Qataris more gas to sell without
breaking their drilling moratorium at home. The Texas facility would
also give them an opportunity to sell American gas at the low American
price to mostly Asian traders who have the purchasing leverage to demand
it. In doing so, Qatar can try to preserve the higher oil-indexed price
for the gas it produces at home.

“For
Qatar to adapt, they not only need to adapt their marketing strategy in
terms of where to sell the gas but also in terms of their pricing
strategy to retain market share,” Ms. Palti-Guzman said. “Golden Pass
fits into that.”

Requests
to speak with Qatari government and oil industry officials went
unanswered. Exxon Mobil’s Mr. Franklin said he could not speak for them,
but offered praise. “They have been as good as anyone we’ve dealt with
from a business-friendly perspective,” he said of Exxon Mobil’s Qatari
partners.

“Why don’t we have a permit?” Mr. Franklin complained. “I have no idea.”

The
terminal’s prospects appeared to many specialists to have improved when
the Energy Department issued a rule in May pushing platforms with
strong financial backing, which includes Golden Pass, to the head of the
regulatory line of approval.

More
than 20 projects are under consideration by the Energy Departmentand
the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which reviews their
environmental impact. The Energy Department gave final approval to two
proposed export projects this month, enabling them to ship gas to
countries without free-trade agreements with the United States. They
join Cheniere Energy’s terminal a few miles from Golden Pass across the
Louisiana border, which was the first terminal to gain full federal
regulatory approval and is expected to begin exporting by late 2015.

WASHINGTON- “A man who jumped the White House fence this month made
it far deeper into the president’s home than previously disclosed, overpowering a female Secret Service agent
inside the North Portico entrance and running through the East Room
before he was tackled, according to a congressional official familiar
with the details of the incident.”…

“An armed man who jumped the White House fence this month made it far deeper into the mansion than previously disclosed, overpoweringa Secret Service agentinside
the North Portico entrance and running through the ceremonial East Room
before he was tackled, according to a member of Congress familiar with
the details of the incident.”….
===========================.
Screen shot of revised NY Times article showing “female” excised: (As of 2:48am Sept. 30, no corrections are listed to the NY Times article).

“In
too many communities around the country, a gulf of mistrust exists
between local residents and law enforcement,” Mr. Obama said. “Too many
young men of color feel targeted by law enforcement — guilty of walking
while black or driving while black, judged by stereotypes that fuel fear
and resentment and hopelessness.”

About the same time Mr. Obama
was speaking Saturday night, a Ferguson police officer was shot in the
arm after an encounter with two men at a community center in the St.
Louis suburb. St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar
said at a media briefing early Sunday that the officer approached the
men around 9:10 p.m. Saturday because the community center was closed.

As the officer approached, the men ran away. When the officer gave chase, “one of the men turned and shot,” Chief Belmar said.

The officer was shot in the arm and is expected to survive, he said. Chief Belmar
did not identify the officer or give further details about his
condition. He said the officer returned fire, but police have “no
indication” that either suspect was shot....

Around midnight at the police station, approximately two
dozen officers stood near a group of about 100 protesters who mingled on
a street corner, occasionally shouting, “No justice; no peace.”

At the president’s speech in Washington, the audience included the parents of Mr. Brown,
and Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., whose agency is conducting a
probe to determine whether the slain teen’s civil rights were violated.
Mr. Obama said because of the continuing probe, “I won’t comment on the
investigation.”

But he added, “We have to
close the justice gap — how justice is applied, but also how it is
perceived, how it is experienced. That’s what we saw in Ferguson this summer when Michael Brown was killed and the community was divided.”

“That has a corrosive
effect,” the president said. “The worst part of it is, it scars the
hearts of our children. It scars the hearts of white children who grow
unnecessarily fearful of somebody who doesn’t look like them.It stains
the heart of black children who feel as if no matter what he does, he’ll
always be under suspicion. That is not the society we want, it is not
the society our children deserve.”...

Mr. Obama also urged the audience members to get out and vote in the November midterm elections. “Cynicism
is a choice, but hope is a better choice,” he said. “Get those souls to
the polls. If we do, I guarantee we’ve got a brighter future ahead.”"

• "This article is based in part on wire service reports from Missouri."

"From now until Nov. 6, President Obama and GOP presidential
candidate Mitt Romney will emphasize their differences. But the two
men's lives actually coincide in a striking number of ways. In this
installment of NPR's "Parallel Lives" series, a look at Obama's time at a Hawaii institution called Punahou."

"Punahou School was founded by missionaries in 1841 — the campus is
just up the hill from Waikiki, and it's built around a historic spring.

Punahou occupies a privileged position, not just on the hillside, but in Hawaii society. In his memoir, Dreams From My Father, Barack Obama recalled how his grandfather pulled strings to get him in.

He was teaching at Punahou at the time, and he remembers the future president as a pudgy, cheerful kid.

"He
used to wear these shorts and striped T-shirts a lot, and sandals. But
after you got to know him, not only was he a bright student, but he was
just a funny, all-around kid, and everybody liked him," says Eldredge.

But
in his memoir, Obama dwells on moments at Punahou when his race made
him feel conspicuous, such as the time he was teased for playing with
the only other black child in his grade.

"When I looked up, I
saw a group of children, faceless before the glare of the sun, pointing
down at us. 'Coretta has a boyfriend! Coretta has a boyfriend!' " Obama
writes.

In the book, Obama's struggles with racial identity
grow as he reaches high school, and he recalls intense discussions with
another black student, an embittered boy he calls "Ray."

"Ray" is really Keith Kakugawa. He's part black, part Japanese.

Kakugawa says he and young Obama did have some heart-to-hearts about
race but, in general, it wasn't a big issue at the school because
Punahou kids had to stick together.

Of course, young Obama was not rich. He was a scholarship
student. He worked at a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop. It's still
there, near the school. So is the apartment building where he lived with
his grandparents.

In a way, Punahou was his neighborhood — and this being Hawaii, so was the beach.

Sandy Beach Park was one of his favorites. Surfer Turk Cazimero says the scene hasn't changed much since the '70s.

"You come down here on a weekend, you smell every type of weed there is," Cazimero says with a laugh.

Obama
has admitted upfront that he did drugs in high school — that's in his
memoir. But there are lingering questions about how much he did.

At Punahou, he and his buddies called themselves the "Choom Gang" —
choom means smoke pot. And things sometimes got out of hand. One guy
rolled a car. But his homeroom teacher, Eric Kusunoki, says he never saw
signs of trouble. Young Obama's grades stayed good, as did his
attitude.

"Every day when he'd come in, he'd always walk in the
door very positive, very pleasant, big smile, you know, 'Hey, Mr. Kus,
how you doing?' " says Kusunoki.

Another school friend, Ronald Loui, says that when talking about the Choom Gang, you have to keep a sense of proportion.

"There was a group called the Stoners. And the Choom Gang wasn't the Stoners," Loui says.

The Choom Gang were the sons of successful people — one boy's father was a prominent judge — and there was an expectation that they
would be successful, too. Loui says if you're looking for Punahou's
lasting gift to Obama, this was it: The elite environment familiarized
him with success. "Everywhere he turned, he could see a path to
leadership. The highest level of achievement is something he can touch —
it's tangible," Loui says.

And it was during that Choom Gang
period that young Obama took a class called "Law in Society," taught by
attorney and Punahou alumnus Ian Mattoch.

"He was a student who
appeared to be serious and yet he was able to socialize with all of his
classmates, which isn't an easy thing to do at Punahou School," says
Mattoch.

That may be an early glimpse of political skills — but
he wasn't into politics yet. No student council meetings for him,
perhaps because it would have meant less time for basketball.

"Basketball
is his passion. He loved the game," says classmate Alan Lum. He played
varsity with Obama. Today he teaches second grade. In high school, Lum
says, if you were looking for the kid known as Barry Obama, the first
place to check was always Punahou's outdoor courts. "Just pickup games. That was his realm," Lum says.

Always
shooting hoops — it's the one thing everyone remembers about him at
Punahou. Another friend says that back then, if he'd had to guess, he
would've predicted Obama was destined for a bright career — as a
basketball coach.

On Weekend Edition Sunday, Don Gonyea will report on Mitt Romney's years at Cranbrook prep school in Michigan."

(scroll down): "Let me read it to you. "Tea Party Intends to Prevent Blacks From
Voting on Tuesday -- According to the Clarion Ledger, Chris McDaniel
& the Tea Party plan to prevent Democrat voting in the Senate runoff
on Tuesday between Thad Cochran and Tea Party candidate Chris
McDaniel. We know the Tea Party uses 'Democrats' as code for
'African-Americans.' Don't be intimidated by the Tea Party.

"Let's turn out for all Mississippians and vote for Thad Cochran. Thad Cochran works for Mississippi. Mississippi cannot and will not
return to the bygone era of intimidating black Mississippians from
voting. We must rise up on Tuesday to have our voices heard on who will
represent Mississippi in the US Senate. VOTE THAD COCHRAN." This is
the flier that was sent out in Democrat districts and counties that told
them the purpose of Chris McDaniel and the Tea Party was to prevent
them from voting.

"The Daily Callerreportedrobocalls are trying to mobilize black Democrats to support Cochran by tying McDaniel to the Tea Party and its opposition to President Obama.

In the automated message appearing to target black
Democrat voters in Mississippi, the female voice on the line claims that
tea party challenger Chris McDaniel would lead to more obstruction in
Washington and create more “disrespectful treatment” to the nation’s
first African-American president.
“The time has come to take a stand and say NO to the tea party,” the
message says. “NO to their obstruction. NO to their disrespectful
treatment of the first African-American president.”

The left-wing media is jumping at the opportunity to slam the Tea
Party and support Cochran by raising fears of intimidating black voters.

In The New York Times editorial blog, “Scaring Away Black Voters in Mississippi,” Juliet Lapidos adds fuel to the race card fire by characterizing Tea Party poll watchers as a voter intimidation effort....

Comment: From everything I've read, the ridiculous, celebrity obsessed Jenny Beth Martin and her Tea Party Patriots groups are as much an obstacle as the GOP Establishment. National so-called "Tea Party" groups like Ms. Martin's rake in millions from small donors who may think their money is going directly to Tea Party candidates. Most if not all the money goes elsewhere. Local Tea Party groups are a different story. They're committed local people, don't have any money, just volunteering. This comment is about national TP groups per se and has nothing to do with alleged racist or voting rights intentions.

American
airstrikes can deliver swift and decisive results on the battlefield.
But without a feasible morning-after planor dependable state
institutions to support, shifting the dynamics on the battlefield often
makes things worse.

Some lawmakers protested
at the time, but not strenuously enough. That disregard for Congress’s
power to declare war partly paved the way for Mr. Obama to launch the
new campaign in Syria without authorization.

Qaddafi’s relatively swift ouster
initially made the outcome in Libya look like a foreign policy victory
for the Obama administration. But fighting among rival militias, and a
broader conflict between Islamists and their opponents, have plunged the
nation into a new civil war. The United States abandoned its embassy in
Tripoli this summer, a painful retreat almost two years after an
American ambassador and three of his colleagues were slain in an attack
in Benghazi.

President Obama recently told Thomas L. Friedman
of The Times that failing to help Libya form a new state after the fall
of Qaddafi was his biggest foreign policy regret. Yet the fate of that
country has been largely absent from discussions about the new war,
which is certain to last longer and unleash a wider array of
consequences.

page 2: "Obama is not the manner of man who can say, “I was wrong: It turns
out that al-Qaedais actually on the rise, its Islamic State faction is
overwhelming the region, and American interests — perhaps even American
territory — are profoundly threatened.” So instead . . . you got “the
Khorosan Group.”

"Only the U.S. —
not Arab allies — struck sites associated with the Khorasan group,
officials said. Khorasan group members were in the final stages of
preparations for an attack on U.S. and Western interests, a defense
official said. Khorasan was planning an attack on international
airliners, officials have said. . . . Rebels and activists contacted
inside Syria said they had never heard of Khorasan and that the U.S.
struck several bases and an ammunition warehouse belonging to the main
al Qaeda-linked group fighting in Syria, Nusra Front. While U.S.
officials have drawn a distinction between the two groups, they
acknowledge their membership is intertwined and their goals are similar."

Oops.
So it turns out that our moderate Islamist partners have no interest in
fighting Syria’s al-Qaeda affiliate. Yes, they reluctantly, and to a
very limited extent, joined U.S. forces in the strikes against the
Islamic State renegades. But that’s not because the Islamic State is
jihadist while they are moderate. It is because the Islamic State has
made mincemeat of Iraq’s forces, is a realistic threat to topple Assad,
and has our partners fretting that they are next on the menu.

Oh, and what about those other “moderates” Obama has spent
his presidency courting, the Muslim Brotherhood? It turns out they are
not only all for al-Qaeda, they even condemn what one of their top
sharia jurists, Wagdy Ghoneim, has labeled “the Crusader war against the Islamic State.”

“The
Crusaders in America, Europe, and elsewhere are our enemies,” Ghoneim
tells Muslims. For good measure he adds, “We shall never forget the
terrorism of criminal America, which threw the body of the martyred
heroic mujahid, Bin Laden, into the sea.”

Obama has his story and he’s sticking to it. But the same can be said for our enemies." via Drudge